INTERVIEW: W&W at TomorrowWorld

posted by Nicole Mastrogiannis
-
3 years ago

Over the past few years, Willem and Ward (better known as W&W) have been dominating the dance music scene. Their music has been supported by some of the most well-known DJs in the world including Armin van Buuren, Hardwell, Tiesto, and more. And when they're not producing chart-topping tracks or playing at every major festival and club, they're running their label Mainstage Music.

We caught up with the talented duo after their set on the main stage at TomorrowWorld, where they talked about working with Hardwell, their remixes for Krewella and Armin van Buuren, and more. Check it out below:

What do you think of TomorrowWorld?

We didn't see much except for the main stage, and the artist compound. But it looks amazing. Even when we went to the artist compound, it felt so good, with good vibes. It's going to be a good festival. In the middle of nowhere though but still it's like … they decorated everything. It's like walking into a theme park.

This summer, "Jumper" with Hardwell. How was working with him?

He's one of like our best friends. It works pretty well. We work a lot together and this tune, we [were] already working since November. We finished it when we were on tour in Australia in February/March. We finished it in a hotel room. He played it at Ultra, and the reaction was great.

I think we met him like a couple of years ago. I don't even remember. We kept like meeting him, and a certain point, like, two years ago actually, our sounds ... because he was more into house, we were more into trance ... and I think we sent him a tune, like, two years ago and he was, like, "I love this." And since then we started, like, hooking up more and more. We've bumped into him a long time, and you know you kinda walk into each other every now and then. Now, we see each other, like, every couple of weeks. We go out with him.

This summer, you also DJ'd after the Phillies game? How was that?

It was really cool. It was quite a unique thing playing in a baseball stadium because the seats, you know, it was after the game, so everybody left except for the crowd who wanted to see the set. But it was like all the seats are empty and stuff. It was about, I think it was 3,500 people who stayed there after the game so that was very cool.

Did you also watch the game?

Yes. That was my first baseball game ever, so that was cool. It was long because in Holland we always watch soccer and it's like 90 minutes. I was like "wow, this is long." You have to wait for all the innings. We grabbed the hotdog and drinks, and it was cool.

You guys are remixing a Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike track. But you haven't announced which one it is?

We're still working on it. We're not going to. It's still a secret until it's finished.

When are you guys going to reveal?

I don't know, when it's finished. We first need to finish it. We're like working on it for 2 weeks, it's still not what we want it to be. So it's only a couple of weeks to work on it.

You also remixed Krewella which is coming out on Columbia. Are you guys Krewella fans?

Of course, we love the vocals, we love the songs they do. They sent us that song and were like "you want into remix it?" We listened to the song, were like instantly, "yes!" We love this. Normally, with remixes, we don't like remixes at all, to be honest but this one was...

But you're so good at it! Your remix for Armin "This Is What It Feels Like" was pretty big.

Only if we like the song. If we like the song, we feel it and we do it. But we like don't totally feel it, it's going to take ages. We felt the track. We went to a studio and he just showed us the song. He's like, "I'm looking for a club mix and I want you to do it." We were like, okay. But we're good friends with Armin. It was like, "We're going to try it." And so then we tried it. We couldn't say no to him. We couldn't say no to Armin, of course. We did it, and in the end it worked out. We're really happy with it.

You also this summer did b2b2b2b set with Showtek, Dyro and Chuckie. How was it with so many guys in the booth at one time?!

Yeah. That was a funny story because Chuckie was supposed to play after us, and somewhere on his way from Greece to, I think it was Austria, he lost his USB sticks. So he was there at the festival, but he didn't have any music with him. The organization didn't really know what to do, so they just asked like, "Do you want play along?" and I was, like, yeah, I can play along, but maybe it's fun to bring all the other DJs on stage and do like one big back to back session with, I think was Showtek, Dyro, and Chuckie. That was really fun. It was like crazy. The crowd went so hard. It's crazy. Because both Chuckie and Showtek were MCing the whole time and, it was crazy.